Arab Uprisings
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Twitter, Facebook, and social activism
At four-thirty in the afternoon on Monday, February 1, 1960, four college students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. They were freshmen at North Carolina A. & T., a black college a mile or so away. “I’d like a cup of coffee, please,” one of the four, Ezell Blair, said to the waitress. “We don’t serve Negroes here,” she replied.
Wallflowers at the Revolution
The live feed from Egypt is riveting. We can’t get enough of revolution video — even if, some nights, Middle West blizzards take precedence over Middle East battles on the networks’ evening news. But more often than not we have little or no context for what we’re watching. That’s the legacy of years of self-censored, superficial, provincial and at times Islamophobic coverage of the Arab world in a large swath of American news media.
Egypt: Demonstrators Defy Riot Police, Censorship
(Cairo) - Thousands of protesters in Cairo and Alexandria defied a heavy deployment of riot police and other security forces and government warnings not to participate in demonstrations on January 28, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. The government shut down access to the internet and most mobile phone networks and ordered the army onto the streets of Cairo ahead of a curfew. Witnesses described dozens of demonstrators being injured by the police. Reports say security forces are restricting the movements of the opposition leader Mohamed el-Baradei and have arrested several leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Police briefly detained several journalists covering the protests. "The Egyptian people are on the streets demanding reform and a government whose police no longer attack them," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
Activists take battle for Syria online - Middle East
Away from the sniper fire and daily violence on the streets of cities across Syria , another battle is simmering between supporters and opponents of the government of President Bashar al-Assad. This fight is taking place not on the streets, but in the homes of online activists determined to silence the opposing side. In the latest attack, members of the activist groups Anonymous and RevoluSec claimed responsibility on Monday for hacking into the official websites of several Syrian government departments, including the ministries of transport and culture. They left their marks on each site, posting caricatures of Assad along with tips on how to avoid detection by Syria's online intelligence - known as the Syrian electronic army. They say the online operation is in reaction to attacks on activist sites by the electronic army, a pro-government hacking group.